Shoe stretcher



April 17, 1951 R. F. MGCLENATHAN 2,549,502

SHOE STRETCHER Filed March 5, 1950 ROY P. Mo CL'ENATHAN Patented Apr. 17, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SHOE STRETGHER Roy F. McClenathan," MoorheadvillaPa. Application March 3, 1950, Serial No. 147,425

3 Claims. (Cl. 12-1285) The device of thepresent invention consists of a shoe stretcher, the principal object of the in: vention being to provide a stretcher capable of selective expansion of the vamp of a shoe at the toe, ball or uniformly from toe to ball. I A further object of the invention isptoprovide a shoe stretcher which-when it is desired to stretch the shoe from toe to ball, will automati-v cally adjust itself to exert equal pressure on all portions of the vamp. V

It is also within the contemplation of this invention to provide a. wholly articulate stretcher responsive to a pushing, pulling and rotating action of an operating shaft completely within the control of the user to effect expansion of either the fore or aft parts of the stretcher heads or uniform. lateral displacement, when desired,

while the stretcher is mounted within the shoe.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a shoe stretcher durable in structure and requiring a minimum amount; of effort to effect the expansion. g a j r Other objects "will be apparent from the following description of the present preferred form of the invention wherein:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of ashoe stretcher in position to effect uniform expansion of the shoe frame, from toe to ball, constructed in accordance with the present invention, parts being broken away to disclose details;

Figure 2 is a similarview with a part of the operating shaft broken away and the stretcher heads intact, illustrating the position of the heads when used to stretch the toe portion of the vamp;

Figure 3 is a similar view illustrating the position of the stretcher heads when used to stretch the ball portion of the vamp;

Figure 4 is a transverse sectional view taken along the lines l4 of Figure 4, looking in the direction of the arrows and showing to advantage the manner of mounting the spring in the stretcher heads; and r Figure 5 is a transverse sectional view taken along the line 55 of Figure 1, looking in the direction of the arrows, showing the manner of engaging the aft bearing with the operating shaft and the stretcher heads. 7

The assembly A includes yieldably engaged parallel heads 6' each of which tapers to a point at the fore end, as indicated at l, the aft end of each head being abrupt and provided with lugs 8.

The inner wall of eachhead is recessed as indicated at 9 and curved at a point adjacent the toe of the head to provide an arcuate surface 9'. The rear end of each recess 9 is formed to provide a cured one end of a link 30. I link 30 is similarly engaged with lugs 8 aft of guideway Ill. The central portion of each head is cored out, as shown in Figure 4, to provide a housing for an endless helical spring I2 which normally urges the proximate face l3 of heads 6 into engagement. By using only the one spring, the force exerted is equally distributed along the entire length of the spring and correspondingly equally exerted on the heads 6 on both sides of the shaft.

The expander assembly B includes a shaft [4 provided at one end with a handle I5, equipped near its other end with a worm thread It; The portion of the shaft beyond said thread is reduced as indicated at ii. The shaft 14 carries fore,

: intermediate and aft Spreaders l8, l9 and guide "2l'to complement the concave contour of curved innerwal-l sfi-of each head 6. The foremost portion of spreader i8 tapers to a point as at 22 so that the spreader is wholly within stretcher heads A and disposed contiguous with recessed inner wall 9. 4 The central portion of spreader I8 is cut out as indicated at 23 to receive a collar 24 which is keyed to shaft M as denoted at 25. This collar exerts on spreader it a force capable of producing a longitudinal displacement thereof. Adjacent cut-out 23 is a recess 26 in which is a ball bearing 27. Reduced shaft ll extends through collar 24 into recess 26 where it engages ball bearing 21 to form a thrust bearing. This thrust bearing greatly reduces the amount of effort required to rotate shaft I4 and expand the heads A.

The spreader I9 is hexagonal and threaded on worm' thread It and moves relatively to spreader [8 only when shaft l i'is rotated. Two sides of the spreader I9 are tapered as indicated at 28 to complement guideways II].

Guide bearing 20 is slidably mounted on shaft I4 aft of stretcher heads .A. Lateral extensions of guide bearing 28 form parallel bearing plates 29, to each of which is pivotally se- The other end of stretcher heads A, as shown to advantage in Figure 5, to produce an articulate. movement. This articulation produces a relative movement The spreaders I of spreader 20 with respect both to the shaft I4 and stretcher heads A. The sliding movement of spreader 20 determines the relative position of the stretcher heads A with respect to each other.

In use the stretcher is placed within the shoe and handle I5 is rotated clockwise until stretcher heads A frictionally engage the vamp from toe to ball. Movable guide bearing 20 automatically adjusts the stretcher to produce equal pressure at all points of the vamp. If then, it is desired to uniformly stretch the vamp, handle 15 is further rotated until the desired expansion is attained. Guide bearing 20 at all times equalizes the pressure on the vamp.

To stretch the toe, after frictional engagement of the stretcher heads A and the vamp, the handle I5 is rotated and a push exerted on it. This urges spreader .19 against the wall of cored out housing II and causes spreader l8 to slide toeward along curved walls 9 As a result the stretcher heads A converge at the ball, diverge at the toe and guide bearing 20 slides on shaft I4 relatively to the movement of the heads. Figure 2 is illustrative of this operation.

The same general procedure is followed in stretching the ball portion with the exception that a pull instead of a push is exerted on the handle [5. Spreaders I8 and I9 slide along arcuate surface 9 and guideway l0, respectively, toward the aft end of streacher heads A causing convergence of the heads at the toe, divergence at the ball and movement of guide bearing 2:! relatively thereto. This operation is shown advantageously by Figure 3.

While the invention has been described in detail in its presently preferred embodiment, it will, of course, be understood that such has been done for purposes of illustration only and not by way of limitation, and therefore. only such limitations are to be imposed thereon as may reasonably come within the scope of the appended claims.

' I claim: 1. A shoe stretcher including yieldably engaged parallel heads, an expander assembly for the heads comprising a shaft and multiple spreaders carried by the latter, one of the spreaders being mounted on the forward end of the shaft within the heads, another spreader being within the head through which the shaft is threaded, a guide bearing being movably mounted on the shaft and movably engaged with the aft ends of the heads, the spreaders and shaft being constructed and arranged to efiect selective uniform lateral movement of the heads and relative movement of the fore parts of the heads and relative movement of the aft parts of the heads, by manual manipulation of the shaft when the stretcher is mounted in a shoe.

2. A shoe stretcher including yieldably engaged parallel heads, and an expander assembly for the heads comprising a shaft one end of which is mounted .within the heads and equipped with a spreader, a thrust bearing for the shaft mounted in the spreader, and a guide bearing slidably mounted on the shaft and engaged with the stretcher heads to permit fore and aft movements of the shaft with respect to the stretcher heads.

3. A shoe stretcher to effect independent expansion of the toe and ball of the shoe to effect uniform expansion of the fore part of a shoe from the toe to the ball including parallel engaged heads, a handle one end of which is screw-threaded and engaged between said heads, a pair of spreaders mounted with said heads, one of the spreaders being engaged with said handle, and a guide bearing slidably mounted on said handle and in pivotal engagement with said heads.

ROY F. McCLENA'IHAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

V UNITED STATES PATENTS Number 

